Tuesday, February 28, 2017

I'm crossing another older Greeting Farm stamp off my un-inked list today. This beauty is Princess Anya 4 and she's only the second Princess Anya that I've gotten on a card so far though I have a feeling her sisters, 2 and 3 will be making an appearance before too long. I can't even tell you why it has taken all this time to finally color Princess up but part of me is kind of glad because my skills have improved since I first got her and I'm really happy with how she turned out, especially her hair. I tend to be more adventurous with my Copic combos now with much better results. I stamped a castle behind Princess to give her a subtle scene to occupy and tried to match the ink to the pretty pattern paper I found in my stash to tie it all together. :)

Monday, February 27, 2017

This layout may look familiar to you since I just used this sketch on Friday's card but this time I wanted to get an entry done for the MFT sketch challenge. The circle element of the sketch had me reaching for these fun Scene It dies and when I paired up the mountain and trees with the sun rays I knew just the stamp set to use. The Beast Friends set is intended to be Yetis aka Abominable Snowmen but when I first saw the set I knew they would make for super cute Sasquatch aka Big Foot and I love me some Big Foot. Have I ever told you that there was even a Big Foot 'sighting' just across the lake from me? Yep, someday I want to hike the woods and see what or who I can find. In the meantime I will just have to be happy with finding this cutie smiling on this fun card. ;)

Friday, February 24, 2017

I got some cute new stamps from Whimsy Stamps recently and I really wanted to practice my no-line coloring with this beautiful girl called Braided Sweetie. Isn't she adorable? With the blonde hair and blue eyes that I gave her she reminds me of a mix of both Anna and Elsa from Frozen, who knows maybe she is their lost third sister... Ulla, LOL! She definitely has a mischievous look about her if you ask me. I ended up borrowing this week's new MFT sketch for the layout design and it worked out perfectly, gotta love it when that happens. :)

Thursday, February 23, 2017

So I'm making the leap from one of my oldest Greeting Farm stamps to my newest set that just arrived in the mail a couple days ago. This little cutie is part of the Mega Mini Lift Off set and she is sailing through the sky and right into my heart. I just adore this entire set so it was hard to choose which was going to get inked up first. This sweet mini Anya with her little legs kicking out won me over so I gave her a bunch of balloons to lift her sky high. Now I know I've used this kind of comic strip panel design on a previous card but it was too much fun not to try it out once again. :)

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

So one of the things that I enjoy almost as much as stamping and coloring is organizing. Especially if that organizing has anything to do with my crafty supplies, LOL! I've been hooked on TGF stamps since my first purchase back in early 2009 so last year I printed out the Greeting Farm stamp archive to keep track of my collection and which ones have already made it on to cards. As I was filling it in I noticed that the master list is missing some stamps from the registry so I've been figuring out their release dates and adding them in myself. I think it's all together now so time for the real fun to begin, seeing which neglected stamps need to get some serious love this year.

I was shocked to find out that the very first Ian stamp that I got eight years ago, Hello Ian, was one of those unloved stamps. So out of the binder he came and I am happy to finally share him here on the ol' blog. His plaid cap had me looking for some plaid paper and when I came across this print from October Afternoon I knew I had a winner. The color palette is masculine yet still kind off bright and cheery, perfect for this dapper little dude. And I can't even tell you how satisfying it was to grab my highlighter and cross Hello Ian off that list. ;)

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

I'm on the run, again... I am SO looking forward to my next couple days off so that I can sit back and relax a bit. Until then I've got a quick card that I threw together last night for this week's MFT sketch challenge. I used my handmade cloud border and some Distress Inks to mimic the stacked horizontal elements of the sketch then found this sweet guy from the Magical Dragons set to live amongst the cloud bank. I also used the mirror image stamp so that I could flip the dragon and have him facing the direction I wanted. It's CAS, it's cute and it was quick, LOL!

Monday, February 20, 2017

This three day weekend has made for a busy few days at work. By the time I get home and put together something for dinner there isn't much time for getting crafty. It's times like these that I'm glad to have a little stash of colored or half colored images sitting and waiting on my desk. This pretty Pinkie from CC Designs came from that pile of stamped images and her hair and skin were already colored up sometime last year. All I had to do yesterday was pick some paper and color her outfit to match. A couple weeks ago I got the new Cream and Sugar paper collection from Doodlebug and the treat cart was too cute not to pair up with Pinkie. That all came together fairly quickly and I could have been done but just before I started to fussy cut Pinkie I thought that it would be fun to give her a bit more face than the original image has. So I used the colorless blender to push out the skin tone from around her pupils and colored in more defined eyes as well as a little grin. I'm quite happy with the end result and glad that I took the extra bit of time to play. :)Toodles!

Friday, February 17, 2017

Since I haven't colored up an ADFD digi since Christmas I figured it was past time to get creative with one of their sweet images. Puffy Flower Fairy has been another digi just sitting on my desk waiting so I figured she had waited long enough and got to coloring. My friend Tracey got this gorgeous handmade specialty paper at an art store called Paper Source and she was kind enough to share some with me. The little white flowers were such a perfect match to the flowers in this darling fairy's hair that I had to pair them up. I love how it looks like she is perched above a spring meadow. Sigh... I'm certainly dreaming of spring myself. Anywho, since this month's challenge on the ADFD blog is 'anything goes' I figured I would pop this card into the mix. :)

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Hi had another super busy day at work yesterday and there wasn't a lot of time to wind down in the crafty room once I got home. What's a girl to do? I searched around my desk until I found this little kitty from Sister Stamps, called Otsu, all colored up and fussy cut ta boot. I had done all that work back in October for a Halloween card but it didn't come together back then. Now originally this sweet kitty is meant to be on its back and you can add a ball of yarn, present, etc to his paws but I thought it would be cute to flip him around and have him peeking through a window, like we've caught him contemplating how to get that fish out of the bowl. That mischievous look is all too familiar around my house, LOL! Anywho, it was fun putting this quick card together even if I didn't spend a lot of time on it. :)

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Today I've made a card using the new beauty, Hi Anya from TGF. I didn't know what kind of card this was going to be when I first started coloring her up. Even after I found this great scrap of paper I still wasn't sure. There are so many happy colors and patterns in this quilt looking paper that I stamped Anya on four different squares to pick just the right print to paper piece her dress from. Ultimately I went with the blue because it looked the best with her brassy red hair. In the end Anya let me know that this should be a birthday card and who was I to argue? ;)

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day! For my last Valentine card of the year I've colored up Heart You from Mo's Digital Pencil. Talk about adorable, this little uni-sex cutie has definitely stolen my heart. I ended up choosing a pink and purple color scheme so I suppose she's looking rather feminine but with a quick change of papers and colors it could just as easily be a sweet little boy giving his heart away. I'm entering this into the February 'anything goes' challenge over at the Mo's Digital Challenge blog.

Monday, February 13, 2017

It was a super busy weekend at work but I managed to find a couple hours to play in my crafty room yesterday and I wanted to make a card for this week's MFT sketch challenge. Because I didn't have a lot of time to devote to coloring I figured it was a good reason to grab my Pure Innocence binder and find a simple cutie to color up quickly. I chose this sweet Happy Mail stamp and it must be an older one because she isn't available in the MFT store anymore. I know I've had this stamp for years and for the life of me I can't remember if I've gotten her on a card before. If not, I'm really glad I got her on one now. I paired her up with some older Doodlebug papers and stickers to make a Valentine because the envelopes on that paper were just too perfect not to. :)

Well, thanks for dropping by today I hope your week is off to a great start!

Friday, February 10, 2017

The East Wind put up a new challenge last week and the theme this time is 'love and romance'. As I was looking through my digis to find the perfect cutie for this card I came across Aurora Hair Tree and thought that with a little hair cut she would have a perfectly romantic looking up-do. So I colored her up to match this pretty paper and then fussy cut the ends off her hair until she had a dreamy Gibson Girl coif. Now I think she looks like she's ready for a Valentine's Day date with her special love. :)Alrighty, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend my friends!

Thursday, February 9, 2017

It's a snow day for me, I was hoping to go into town today but I'm staying home instead due to the winter storm that is dumping more and more snow on us. I'm bummed about having to change my plans but I guess that just means more crafting time for me. :)So Some Odd Girl has started a new monthly challenge over on their blog and it is 'anything goes with a twist'. The twist this month is sequins, glitter or love and I ran with the love theme. This pretty Blooming digi brought to mind a bouquet of Valentine roses so I colored her up to be a little love sprite spreading the magic of Valentine's Day.

Ok, time for me to go make a cuppa cocoa and get cozy. Have a good one!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

I've got another cupcake card to share today. This time instead of a birthday card I decided to create a sweet Valentine. So I stamped the cupcake twice using desert sand and played with more no-line coloring. The sprinkles and sentiment that I paired with them inspired me to go ahead and create a shaker card as well. Which actually makes for a pretty quick put together and you gotta love that! :)Toodles!

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Well digging out of the snow yesterday was a lot of fun... not. Lucky for me I got the call that I didn't need to come in to work so after shoveling the walk I was able to spend a little time in the crafty room. I ended up making a card for this week's MFT sketch challenge and this go round I pulled out the super cute Lucky Dogs set. Something about the sketch inspired this little scene of a pup trying to get over the wall to find his missing buddy. The brick wall was done with a stencil and the clouds in the distance are MFT dies. He looks so pitiful just hanging there like that, I sure hope this lost dog finally finds whomever he's looking for. :)

Monday, February 6, 2017

I'm running way behind this morning and after the snowstorm we've been having, getting out of here and off to work is going to be a bear. So this post is a quickie post for sure... I grabbed my Sugar Nellie stamp binder the other day (still so sad that they are closing their doors) and found this pair of besties just begging to be colored. The stamp is Scrapberry's called Our Summer and I did wipe away the sunglasses from the top of her head as well as a picture from her hand to make it a bit less summer-ish. I colored up the tubby cat to look like my own big guy, Oreo... what a cutie! It's a fun and simple card that could work for a nontraditional Valentine. :)

Friday, February 3, 2017

Are you ready for another Tiny Townie Friday? The Bellarific challenge was 'anything goes' this week so I really couldn't pass up the opportunity to play along once again. This time I grabbed Lacey has a Letter and inked her up in desert sand so I could practice some more no-line coloring. I was really nervous because all of the other images that I've done no-line on have been pretty round with large, easy areas to fill in with color but Lacey here had a lot of little details to be mindful of. I want to keep stretching myself so there was no backing down, LOL! I'm pretty happy with the results, though looking at her now I wish I had gotten a bit more contrast on her dress, especially separating the sleeves from the front of the gown. C'est la vie. I still love her though, that wild curly hair is so cute and so much fun to color. Oh, and I did alter Lacey a bit, originally she is holding a large envelope behind her back but I wiped it away before stamping since I just wanted her to be standing there in that kind of 'aw shucks' pose. Finally, I was inspired by the buttons on her outfit to add actual buttons as the embellishments on my card. Which is a good thing considering I have little drawers full of buttons and I really need to start using them more. ;)

Thursday, February 2, 2017

The Greeting Farm added a new digital cutie to the store last week and I couldn't resist adding her to my collection. Bonjour Anya is just adorable in her kicky boots and pretty beret, she looks like she is spending Valentine's Day in the city of love. So I added a gold heart to her hand and decided to make a Valentine with her. I found this cool Simple Stories paper in my stash with the big LOVE all spelled out in gold and at first I was discouraged because Anya was blocking too much of it to still be read easily. But then I got the idea to shift things around a bit and use her head as the 'o' in love. I think it makes for a fun twist on the design.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

I had intended to get this January birthday card posted yesterday but since I didn't want to miss entering the MFT challenge this one got bumped. So now I'm kicking off February with my last winter card of the season. This is the January cupcake from the PTI Baker's Dozen set and I paired her up with the Birthday Classics January sentiment. I kept the color palette icy and cool with a little added sparkle in that glitter paper for good measure. It's a simply sweet kind of card with not a lot of fuss or muss. And now I've got a whole year to wait before I have someone to send it to, LOL! :)